Locale n8, 2021

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2. Copyright Information
3. Contents
4. ‘Put The Lime In The Coconut’: The rise and decline of lime juice in the Cook Islands, c. 1850s–1930 Judith A. Bennett Abstract

   Lime juice appears as an export from the Cook Islands in the 1860s and continued to be produced in quantity into the 1910s but then is all but gone. The main destination of the juice was New Zealand. Here it was on- sold mainly from Auckland to sailing ships and certain institutions to be part of the daily diet of crews, passengers and inmates in the belief it would be an effective antiscorbutic. By the turn of the century, the demand lessened due to steam ships being used for long distance travel, virtually removing all threat of scurvy. By the late 1900s the British mercantile marine abandoned its use. In the late 1910s a body of evidence indicated lime juice was inferior in comparison to lemon and orange juice as an antiscorbutic, so the demand continued to decline helped by the British navy’s abandoning the lime juice ration in the 1920s. In New Zealand, Cook Islands’ lime juice was often still used in cordials and aerated drinks as well as cosmetics until less expensive sources sealed its decline by 1920.

   Keywords
   Limes, coconut, copra, scurvy, shipping
5. The Historical Evolution Of Rice As A ‘local’ Food In Australia Susie Chant Abstract

   This case study investigates the historical evolution of rice as a ‘local’ food in Australia by focusing on two areas of inquiry: firstly, the nature and meaning of rice as a local food, and secondly, the characteristics of the production and consumption that have often been ignored in other scholarly literature. The history of rice as a commodity shows clear connections between ideas of independence and the values of democratic production methods in establishing the concept of local. This history is presented using a history of commodities approach to examine its changing meaning over time. By linking the production and consumption of rice, this article casts a new light on the standard historical narrative and deepens our understanding of what local foods represented to Australians at different points in time.

   Keywords
   Rice, Australian rice, local food, local food Australia, history of rice Australia
6. Hedonic Stimulus In Public Engagement With Nutrition Science: Findings from a Coal Mining Town in rural/regional Australia Catherine Lockley Abstract

   Despite widespread Government nutrition and food consumption advice in Australia, diet-related disease incidence continues to increase. This study examines public attitudes to food, nutrition, and well-being through the dual filters of populist gastronomy (Nigella Lawson) and traditional nutrition science communication with middle class/professional adults residing in a low Socio-economic Index (SEI) area of semi-rural NSW that is characterised by greater than average diet-related morbidity. Using a voluntary participatory research approach, a qualitative study was conducted with six focus groups (n=47) who self- identified as primary food providers. The topics examined were: perceptions of current dietetic or government nutrition advice; the importance of flavour versus health concerns in food choices; immediate gastronomical perceptions of a Nigella Lawson meal; and the effects of narrative on menu planning and consumption. This study demonstrates how the hedonic gastronomic narrative influences and enhances public food understanding and dietary practices. We conclude that current Nutrition Science communication narratives would benefit from a broader gastronomic focus emphasising flavour and pleasure in consumption.

   Keywords
   Nutrition Communication, Hedonic Narrative, Focus Group, Qualitative Research, Gastronomy
7. “As True As Mum’s Cooking”: The mother, her food, and the study of Vietnamese gastronomic identity Alex Xuân-Bách Trần Abstract

   In recent years, ‘chuẩn cơm mẹ nấu’ (as good/correct/true as mum’s cooking) has become a popular term used widely in Vietnamese communities in Vietnam and elsewhere when talking about not only food but also the state of being correct. In its original form, which derives from a social media phenomenon of being absolutely correct, the term is widely used to confirm how true/correct a thing or statement is in informal daily oral and written context. In relation to food, it has been used as a magical spell in marketing and food writing in different senses to evoke people's nostalgia to sell their products. Within the context of Vietnamese culture and language, the mother figure and her food have been exploited to perform a heavily socio-cultural gendered duty, which happens to become the aesthetic of food, eating, knowledge, and all other life's matters to the Vietnamese. In this paper, I explore how this figure of the mothers and their food was formed, has changed, and is now used to form and express a Vietnamese gastronomic identity, where everything must be ‘as mum’s cooking’.

   Keywords
   Vietnam, mother, cooking, gastronomic identity
8. Unravelling The Food Narratives Of Aotearoa New Zealand: Moving on from Pavlova and Lamingtons Elizabeth Latham Abstract

   For culinary tourism to flourish, stories of the people, places and food experiences must be told. A coherent narrative about the food culture and the food stories has been missing in the New Zealand context, and to this point food culture has not been used to draw visitors to the destination. The COVID-19 crisis may, however, be a turning point. This paper draws on content analysis and semi-structured interviews with food experts to explore current narratives to examine how cohesive they are, who is driving them and how COVID- 19 has impacted them. In the New Zealand food story there are reoccurring themes of the tastes of the place, the potent flavours and ingredients mixed with the impact of geographic isolation. The importance of Māori values to the food story plus the immigrant cultures to New Zealand shape the diversity of the cuisine. The provenance of the food is linked to the people who make, grow and fish for the food. COVID-19 has created the conditions for a shift towards viewing food well beyond its place in commodity export markets. Government agencies responsible for international messaging are now taking notice, and there is growing interest in developing culinary tourism in New Zealand in a post-COVID world.

   Keywords
   Food tourism, culinary experiences, COVID, New Zealand, Aotearoa; food culture
9. Edible Bendigo: Reclaiming Foodscapes and their Role in the Future of Gastronomy Cr Dr Jennifer Alden Abstract

   The challenges of environmental and climate breakdown have broader impacts on our food system and health. An opportunity exists to identify ways to better align ecology and health via re-linking food to our landscapes and also to provide an aesthetic impact.

   UNESCO contributes to gastronomy heritage and the universal value of cultural landscapes, including foodscapes, by promoting gastronomy as a category of the Network of Creative Cities. This includes making creativity a lever for urban development and developing new solutions to tackle common challenges. Gastronomic aspects of aesthetic experience can expand the notion of foodscapes beyond culinary frameworks to include productive, sustainable landscapes. A new approach to ‘foodscapes', via creating edible landscapes in public places, can reverse the community disconnect with food growing, increasing awareness of and participation in food production. Redesigning streetscapes and aesthetic edible precincts create more resilient and environmentally sound food systems.

   As Australia’s newly and only designated UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, Bendigo’s focus includes creative approaches to tackling the challenges of climate change, in the process ensuring fair access to health and wellbeing via a focus on sustainable local food systems. Our gastronomy story is about innovating and adapting to new landscapes while learning from our Dja Dja Wurrung heritage, to celebrate environmental aesthetics by new approaches to growing, sourcing, cooking and sharing food in the community. Our foodscapes represent our culture and provide a fundamental focus for gastronomy of the future.

   Keywords
   Bendigo, foodscapes, gastronomy, urban agriculture

Locale n7, 2018

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2. Copyright Information
3. Contents
4. Sensory Politics of Food Pedagogies Elaine Swan and Rick Flowers (guest editors)
5. Back to the Future: Australian Suburban Chicken-Keeping as Cultural Pedagogy and Practice Revival Ruth Barcan Abstract

   The last ten years have witnessed the resurgence of small-scale domestic chicken-keeping in many cities around the world as part of a broader rise in urban agriculture. This chapter draws on primary research carried out in Sydney in 2015-16 to explore a contemporary “food pedagogy” (Swan and Flowers, 2015)—that of domestic chicken-keeping—asking whether it might signal something more than just “a pervasive nostalgia for earlier modes of living” (Hamilton, 2014: 124). Springboarding off the concept of “practice memory” elaborated by Cecily Maller and Yolande Strengers (2015), it canvasses eight themes arising from the interviews, exploring the learning, sharing and values cultivation involved in this revived practice as a form of cultural pedagogy.

   Keywords
   Chicken-keeping, cultural pedagogy, practice revivals, sustainability, food cultures, urban agriculture
6. The ‘Eeeuw’ Factor: The Viscerally Sensorial Realities of Being the Colonial Gastronomer Jacqui Newling
   Author’s statement: This paper includes images that people may find confronting or disturbing. No offence is intended in showing these images.
   Abstract

   As the Colonial Gastronomer at Sydney Living Museums I research, interpret, write, blog, lecture, broadcast and present interactive programs to engage and educate audiences about Australian colonial food and heritage. But how do you learn about the sensory qualities of foods that were popular two hundred years ago, especially those that have been discarded from the mainstream (particularly Anglo-Celtic) Australian culinary repertoire? How they looked and tasted, their textures and aromas? My answer: make them. This has meant preparing and cooking foods that many Australian people find offensive, distasteful, disgusting and ‘gross’: calves’ feet jelly, boiled calves’ heads, brawned pig’s face, peeled tongues, and collared eels so fresh they twitch and jump on the benchtop when filleted. This auto-ethnographic analysis draws on my experiences of working with articles of culinary disgust, particularly animal heads and tongues, to reflect upon the pedagogical processes involved in my role as the Colonial Gastronomer. It explores the intellectual and emotional effects of sensory engagement with these foods, and my internalised conflict between my personal socio-moral sensibilities and the highly visceral yet positive mimetic experiences, of working with foods that elicit disgust.

   Keywords
   Museum interpretation, culinary heritage, disgust, mimesis, pedagogy
7. Pleasures, Perceptions and Practices: Eating at a Uruguayan Social and Sporting Club Elsher Lawson-Boyd Abstract

   According to the National Health and Medical Council (NHMRC, 2013), a leading body in health and medical research in Australia, the rising incidence of obesity and non-communicable chronic diseases is evidence that individuals need to improve their food choices. One prominent yet contested method of intervention is public dietary education (Lindsay, 2010). Framing the Australian Dietary Guidelines as pedagogical—that is, as a social process that attempts to influence a population’s actions, feelings and thoughts—enables us to critically consider the manner in which food pleasures are problematised (Sandlin, O’Malley and Burdick, 2011). Food’s capacity to evoke pleasure, the Guidelines assume, is an effect of its physicality; an effect of its qualities like ‘palatability’, which is problematic as it increases the likelihood of ‘increased food intake’ (NHMRC, 2013; 222). Thus, according to this logic, eating can and should be controlled if weight loss is to be achieved (Mol, 2012). Yet when thinking deeper about this normative conceptualisation of food pleasures, the meanings and nuances of enjoyable eating and how they play a role in health and wellbeing are left unattended to. Mol (2010) reminds us that eating is an event, which encompasses times, places, materialities, feelings and bodies. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork conducted at a Uruguayan Club in Sydney’s suburb Hinchinbrook acquired for a Master’s thesis, I posit that food pleasures are achieved through practices, where bodily perceptions are entangled with social interactions, relations, memories and feelings. In so doing, I argue that we may think of pleasurable eating not as a danger to wellbeing, but rather as an essential part of it.

   Keywords
   Health and wellbeing, food policy, food pleasures, Australian Dietary Guidelines, diasporic foodways
8. “That Wind is as Warm as Honey Toast”: The language of food in contemporary Australian picture books Laurel Cohn Abstract

   Children’s books are created with the specific intention not only of entertaining but also of enculturating their audiences, and as such they are a rich resource for understanding how a society fashions itself for the young. Focusing on a corpus of 170 contemporary Australian picture books published 2000–2013, this paper unpicks the ways in which the meanings and values of food and food practices are communicated through an interplay of textual elements—words and pictures on the page—and extratextual elements—in particular, sensory memory and sensory ideation. Food can be understood as a language used by book creators to communicate aspects of characterisation and the social and cultural contexts of the narratives, even though most references are incidental. I argue that while the pedagogical effect of incidental food references in picture books is largely unintentional, recurring representations signal assumed norms. Examples drawn from the corpus show that these texts work pedagogically to express ideas of gender, ethnicity and class, as well as food choice: what foods are good to eat and what foods are good to think about.

   Keywords
   Picture books, children’s literature, food pedagogy, food choice, sensory memory
9. The Sensational and Pedagogical Affects of Food Illustrations Linda Knight Keywords
   Food illustration, food pedagogies, arts-based methods, sensational, affect

Locale n6, 2018

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3. Contents
4. Tanka Transitions: Shrimp Paste, Dolphins and the Contemporary Aquapelagic Assemblage of Tai O Philip Hayward Abstract

   Tai O, located off the northwest coast of Hong Kong’s Lantau Island, has a distinct socio-economic and cultural character premised on its position at the centre of an aquapelagic assemblage within the broader Pearl River Delta area. The area is well known as a centre for cultural heritage tourism within which culinary heritage, and particularly shrimp paste production, is a key element. Recent developments in Hong Kong fisheries policy have curtailed shrimp fishing around the island and required its shrimp paste operation to realign its production and manufacturing operations. In tandem with these changes, the island has recently developed as a centre for dolphin-watching tourism. The article examines the nature of Tai O’s contemporary use of marine resources, the nature of community adjustments to external circumstances and the likely longevity of its livelihood activities and distinct culinary products.

   Keywords
   Tai O, Tanka, food heritage, aquapelagic assemblage, fisheries
5. Entomophagy: Understanding New Zealand Consumers’ Attitudes Toward Eating Insects Steph Ritger, Miranda Mirosa, Ella Mangan-Walker, and Claudia Clarkson Abstract

   While the ecological, economic, and social benefits of entomophagy are well documented, adoption of this food source in many Western countries has been slow. Understanding consumers’ attitudes towards entomophagy is important in determining if and how edible insects will be accepted as a food product in the future. This research determined the dominant discourses that exist towards entomophagy in New Zealand. Q methodology, which provides both a technique and philosophical principles for studying individuals’ judgments, attitudes, and points of view about a topic, was used to identify dominant consumer discourses. The objective of the study was to describe representations of different dominant participant viewpoints. Thirty-four participants living in Dunedin sorted a set of statements about entomophagy. The comparison of sorts across participants in a factor analysis enabled the identification of statistically similar participant viewpoints, which were then interpreted using the rich qualitative data obtained in interviews after card-sorting. Five different discourses were identified: ‘Enthusiastic adventurers’, ‘Benefit seekers’, ‘Disgusted disavowals’, ‘Tolerable but restrained’, and ‘Secure resolute’. In addition to practical insights about how insects could be positioned in the marketplace, the identification of these discourses adds to a limited literature on entomophagy attitudes. Future research that measures the prevalence of these discourses via a nation-wide representative survey would allow researchers to determine who holds these viewpoints, which would have useful implications for developing an insect industry.

   Keywords
   Entomophagy, Insects, Discourses, Consumers
6. ‘Bottled Sunshine’: The Birth of the Australian Dried Fruits Industry Alison Wishart Abstract

   Mildura, in northwest Victoria, is the hub of the dried fruits industry in Australia. This small agricultural industry has a remarkably interesting but little-known history. The development of the industry was due to irrigation (which resulted in environmental degradation), entrepreneurialism combined with powerful, persuasive marketing and the tyranny of the distance to markets. Soldier settlers, Alfred Deakin, Justice Henry Higgins and several cookbook authors all played their part. In its infancy, the industry looked to the United States for inspiration but then returned to its natural friends in the Commonwealth for help when markets were bloated and prices were low. Apart from two celebratory, anniversary publications, the history of the industry has been largely overlooked. This paper addresses this oversight by highlighting how the dried fruits industry has influenced some of the key themes and important events in Australia’s cultural, political and legal history.

   Keywords
   Dried fruit industry, Australia, Irrigation Colonies, solider settlement, entrepreneurialism, dried fruit marketing, cookbooks, Mildura
7. Community/Industry Forum: Food Activism and Community Development
   1. Abra Brynne
   2. Tammi Jonas
   3. Laura Kalina

Locale n5, 2018

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3. Contents
4. Community Gardens And Farmers’ Markets: Exploring representations of food culture in the Illawarra Paula Arvela Abstract

   Over recent years, farmers’ markets and community gardens have increasingly become a feature of the urban landscape and a popular representation of food culture. In endorsing the increasingly popular paddock-to-plate ethos, they purportedly promote sustainable food systems thus contributing to the reduction of food miles, increase of food security and building of strong communities. For these reasons, farmers’ markets and community gardens have become significant mechanisms for the expansion of local food systems, regional socio-cultural development, and local economic revitalisation. The Illawarra, in regional NSW, has embraced them wholeheartedly. Since the 1980s the region has experienced a transition to a post-industrial knowledge-based economy, which has been accompanied by profound demographic changes. Using mixed methods of research, this study evaluates how the Illawarra’s recent socio-cultural shifts find expression in the local food culture by examining how community/school gardens and farmers’ markets have impacted on local food systems. The overall findings are suggestive of a socio-economic rift between the Illawarra’s northern and southern suburbs, which are represented in the way social agents enact practices of food consumption and production. In the affluent north, farmers’ markets cater for foodie communities favouring practices of stylised consumption of food; by contrast, the ethnic-diverse south pragmatically uses community/school gardens as sites of food production and social empowerment.

   Keywords
   Illawarra, region, community gardens, farmers’ markets, food culture, food systems, social change
5. “Sunshine Has A Taste, You Know”: Using regional food memoirs to develop values-based food practices Donna Lee Brien and Margaret McAllister Abstract

   Alongside providing a source of entertainment, the growth in food media of all kinds reflects a genuine consumer interest in knowing more about food. While there is culinary information available that serves to educate in relation to food-related practices (shopping, food preparation, cooking, eating out) in ways that can serve to build confidence and enthusiasm, we propose that, in order for new food practices to be not only adopted, but sustained, consumers need to hone and develop personal values that will complement their technical and practical knowledge. This is the marrying of evidence-based and values-based practice that makes for sustained change in personal habits and practices (Fulford 2008). This discussion proposes that regional food memoirs – and specifically those by food producers – can arouse interest and curiosity, build knowledge in regional food systems, and connect consumers to food producers and production. This, we propose, can activate consumers to develop and embed the kind of learning that reinforces a belief in the need to be an ‘authentic consumer’. An authentic consumer is one who knows themselves, their own needs and desires, and makes choices consciously rather than automatically. It follows that an authentic food consumer is engaged with their local food systems and aware of the challenges that confront these systems. A small, but indicative range of memoirs of Australian regional food memoirs, are profiled to examine values, such as being empathic, respectful, compassionate and altruistic, which enhance the possibility for a person to become an authentic consumer.

   Keywords
   Values-based knowledge, food memoir, food writing
6. Myanmar To Coffs Harbour: The role of food in regional refugee settlement Mandy Hughes Abstract

   This paper is based on preliminary findings from research focusing on the sociocultural food experiences of Myanmar refugees (settlers) in Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia. This qualitative, ethnographic study draws on ideas from anthropology and sociology to examine the factors that influence food choices for this particular group. The idea of ‘food as memory’ is well established and this is especially relevant for refugees who have fled their homelands with little more than ‘stories’ and ‘experiences’ from the past. Growing and cooking food (‘traditional’ foods in particular) can allow a settler to reconnect with their past and reassert their cultural identity, which is highly significant for a population experiencing extreme cultural dislocation. Initial interviews with key informants have revealed some of the food challenges faced by this group, but they have also highlighted the special role of food in fostering ‘community’ and how this is connected to attaining a sense of well-being. Gardening has also been identified as significant in promoting and strengthening identity, as well as providing a means of income and a form of ‘therapy’.

   Keywords
   Myanmar, Burma, refugee, food, Coffs Harbour
7. Manaakitanga And Māori Food: Theoretical perspectives of advancement Lindsay Neill, David Williamson, and Tracy Berno Abstract

   This conceptual paper proposes a theoretical framework designed to enhance the reputation of Māori food within the culinascape of Aotearoa New Zealand. We consider the politics of edibility and identity, especially how edibility and acceptance of cuisine confers acceptance or not of New Zealand’s tangata whenua “local people, aborigines, natives” (Ryan, 2001: 274), or Māori. In this regard, we write cognisant of Morris’s (2010) The Politics of Palatability: On the Absence of Māori Restaurants, but theoretically extend Morris’s (2010) position recommending how Derridean, Gadamerian and Māori constructs of manaakitanga (“hospitality”; Ngata, 1993: 209), can coalesce to provide a new way forward for Māori food in Aotearoa New Zealand. Specifically, and alongside these theoretical positions, we promote that history provides Māori with a valuable template via La Varenne and the emergence of French cuisine during the reign of Louis XIV, as a way forward to recognising the importance of Māori food. We believe that the indigenous food of Māori could ultimately gain United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) heritage status. Our paper promotes this possibility.

   Keywords
   Manaakitanga, Māori, food, Pākehā, palatability, politics
8. The Many Meanings of Curry: Australian constructions of Indian food Ian Simpson Abstract

   While curry has been constantly in the Australian consciousness, its identity has altered. First seen as a fashionable dish by the well-to-do, curry became a popular commodity taken up by middle class housewives as a practical, economical meal and then by workingmen as a hearty staple. More recently, curry restaurants have become common in suburban shopping centres and Indian cuisine is increasingly promoted as a fine dining option. Yet curry has also been viewed at times with caution and suspicion. The story of curry in Australia not only provides an illustration of the transnational flow of goods and cultural practices, but its local adaptation serves as a case study of what happens to these practices when they intersect with and respond to a local culture.

   Keywords
   curry, India, Australia, globalisation, transnational
9. Community/Industry Forum: Contemporary Culinary Education and Food Systems Thinking
   1. Mary Allan
   2. Julian Bond
   3. Bernard Casavant C.C.C.
   4. Roger Haden

Locale n4, 2018

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2. Copyright Information
3. Contents
4. Eco-culinary Activism and the Viability of Developing Cane Toads as an Australian Food Resource Philip Hayward Abstract

   Following an introduction to the extent and spread of invasive cane toads in Australia, this article discusses the concept of eco-culinary activism and explores the potential for cane toad meat in local cuisine and as an export commodity. Recent publicity around the cane toad’s nutritional and culinary properties indicates a considerable interest on the part of both the Australian media and Australian chefs in cane toads being introduced into Australian cuisine. Further consideration is given to the safety of eating cane toad meat, to the cane toad’s export potential and the manner in which these might be explored.

   Keywords
   Cane toads, eco-culinary activism, media coverage of culinary issues
5. Planning for Regional Food Security: A case-study of the Australian Capital Territory Bethaney Turner, David Pearson, and Rob Dyball Abstract

   The development of strong local food networks could play a key role in the creation of socially just, environmentally sustainable and resilient food systems in the future. In order for the potential of these networks to be assessed, we need adequate local data on the four key food system components: food production, processing and transportation, consumer access and utilisation, and waste, re-use and post-use management. However, in many locales there is insufficient information gathered and analysed in relation to regional production and consumption of food. This inhibits the implementation of best land use planning and, potentially, compromises future food security. This paper presents a case study of the food system in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), and demonstrates how knowledge gaps restrict the capacity to adequately plan for the Territory’s food future. In doing so, the paper identifies key ways to fill these gaps to better inform the development of policy and planning practices adequately attuned to issues of regional food security.

   Keywords
   local food, Australian Capital Territory, land-use planning, food security
6. ‘Ethical Entrepreneurs’ in the Philippines Alexandra M. Gregori Abstract

   In Filipino provinces, foodways have changed little in the last millennium. Here we find simple Pacific island regional cuisines, tempered by hundreds of years of Chinese migration, Asian traders and Spanish and American colonization, but little known beyond the Philippines. Metro Manila is a different scenario. Home to myriad cafés, bars and restaurants, nobody is ever more than two steps away from the next mouthful. The supermarket shelves are stacked with largely imported, processed food and ‘McDonaldization’ is a looming reality as cheap, American-style restaurant franchises flood the market. Yet there is a new urban food trend happening—a shift away from imported, processed food and a move back to more traditional food production. A growing number of local chefs and food historians, often with overseas experience, have been trying to educate both locals and foreigners about the benefits of high quality, fresh, organic produce.
   
   Part of the process has been to draw attention to an increasing number of regional, entrepreneurial farmers with an eye for organic and ethical food production. But are these innovative entrepreneurs and hobby farmers a strong enough force to change the shape of Filipino foodways?

   Keywords
   ethical entrepreneurs, organic food, regional produce, Philippines
7. The Current Status and Potential of Local Food in South Korea Man-Chul Jung and David Pearson Abstract

   Due to the deterioration of small-scale agriculture in rural regions, and increasing concerns over population health, the local food movement in South Korea has recently attracted interest from many local governments and non-governmental organisations. This paper examines its potential to address some of the social and environmental challenges associated with current forms of food provisioning.
   
   This includes an assessment of farmers’ markets, school meals, box schemes, and traditional markets. It concludes with identification of six issues that need to be managed for local food to continue expanding in South Korea. These being: reducing ambiguity surrounding the meaning of local food; greater sharing of production risks with consumers; improving co- ordination of government involvement; increasing up-take of appropriate production methods such as organic; maintaining opportunities for diversity of local food producers including small-scale family farmers; and finally, embracing local food sales in dominant retail outlets such as supermarkets.

   Keywords
   local food, South Korea, farmers markets, school meals, box schemes, traditional markets
8. Yaqona (Kava) as a Symbol of Cultural Identity S. ‘Apo’ Aporosa Abstract

   Yaqona (more commonly known as kava), when coupled with its associated rituals and practices, is commonly recognised as a potent symbol of Fijian identity. However, there are some indigenous Fijians (iTaukei) who dispute this link, renouncing a connection between yaqona protocols, ceremony and conventions and their sense of cultural identity, therefore dissociating themselves from these practices. In this paper I draw on evidence from the literature together with observations and interviews to explain why some iTaukei distance themselves from yaqona consumption and the fullness of its cultural expression.

   Keywords
   identity, kava, yaqona, Fiji, Pacific cultural identifiers, Pentecostal Church

Locale n3, 2018

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2. Copyright Information
3. Contents
4. Post-organic? The cultural dimensions of organic farming in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales Hazel Ferguson and Mike Evans, with the Northern Rivers Landed Histories Research Group Abstract

   Organic food is enjoying increased mainstream acceptance, and the market growth that comes with that, but as a consequence has been subject to scrutiny over its ability to deliver the environmental and social benefits it is sometimes seen to embody. This article responds to the limited space thus far afforded to farmers’ voices in the literature on this topic. Using an innovative case study approach and focusing on four farms in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, each with their own experiences of organics, we explore how farmers understand both the growth and nature of organic farming systems. We discuss organics as ‘generative metaphor’ in these farmers’ narratives, operating at the intersections between farmer agency, local places, culture, and forms of social organisation, and global discourses of alterity, ecology, and sustainability. While their stories describe a considerable opening of organic farming in recent years, contrasting this with earlier defenses of the classification standard in the face of cultural and economic marginalisation, providing an alternative to conventional food remains central to farmers’ descriptions of their place in the food system.

   Keywords
   Alternative food, organic farming, food movements, community resilience, narrativity
5. Backyard and Community Gardening in the Urban Philippines: A case study from Urdaneta City, Pangasinan Ty Matejowsky Abstract

   This paper examines recent efforts to promote fruit and vegetable consumption within a provincial Philippine city. In August 2009, the municipal government of Urdaneta launched a comprehensive backyard/community gardening program to address ongoing problems related to community health and household self-sufficiency. Paying particular attention to the sometimes complex interplay between the political objectives of municipal government officials and the subsistence and economic needs of everyday citizens, this work adds ethnographic depth to current understanding about (1) how issues of hunger, food insecurity, and inadequate diet are addressed in developing urban areas, and (2) how these responses variously figure into matters of household self-sufficiency and well-being. Such analysis not only provides new insights into problems now increasingly encountered in cities across the Global South, it also elucidates the efficacy of those strategies that encourage grassroots participation in getting local urbanites to produce and eat more fruits and vegetables.

   Keywords
   Urban gardening, Philippines, Global South, nutrition
6. Bangalow Baskets: An image enhancing case study Peter Wynn-Moylan Abstract

   The article explores destination image brand building and maintenance processes in a case study of Bangalow village. It describes Bangalow’s transformation from a shabby highway drive-through to a successful heritage tourism destination and desirable residential village through a long term Mainstreet project led by Professor Henry Sanoff supported by dedicated local organisations. The resultant evolution of the village to heritage status with a global reputation for high quality food produce is related to its destination image creation. The case study examines how an unusual link between art and a Farmers’ Market enhanced the image of both the food producers and the village for the visitor demographic sought by the village’s retailers and producers.

   Keywords
   Bangalow, destination image, farmers’ market, art, tourism
7. Invasive Opportunities and Eco-Culinary Activism: The harvesting, marketing and consumption of Tasmanian sea urchins Philip Hayward Abstract

   Since the 1960s the Heliocidaris erythrogramma (purple sea urchin), which has been observed to be endemic to the Tasmanian coastline since the earliest stages of European visitation and settlement, has been joined by a second species, the long-spined sea urchin (Centrostephanus rodgersii). The new, invasive species has been significantly disruptive of Tasmanian marine environments and has been the subject of numerous research projects and, more recently, ventures aimed to limit its spread. This article addresses the role of the sea urchin in 20th-21st Century cuisine, fisheries and aquaculture in Tasmania and the manner in which consumption of the invasive sea urchin has been promoted as a strategy to control its spread in coastal waters. The article discusses some of the complexities of such eco-culinary activism with particular regard to the Tasmanian Museum of Old and New Art’s ‘Eat The Problem’ event in Summer 2012–13 and, in parallel, evaluates the extent to which sea urchin consumption might be developed as a facet of culinary tourism in the state.

   Keywords
   Sea urchins, Tasmania, invasive species, eco-culinary activism
8. Capital Region Farmers’ Market: Navigating the local Cathy Hope and Joanna Henryks Abstract

   The rise of interest in local food has led to the proliferation of a range of food distribution alternatives including farmers’ markets within which ‘local’ is often embedded in market governance and practice. A review of the literature demonstrates that local is a highly contested and nuanced concept through which multiple economic, social, environmental, political and psychological criteria intersect (La Trobe, 2001). Farmers’ market managers juggle these many and, at times competing criteria. This paper explores the link between the governance of the Capital Region Farmers’ Market (CRFM) and the way in which the management committee enact the local through operational practices. The CRFM, located in Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), is the largest farmers’ market in Australia, generating AU $20 million per annum for the local economy as well as a range of direct and indirect benefits for producers, consumers and the ACT community. The results indicate that the CRFM management committee understood the value of local as a point of differentiation from competitors and ensured that local was embedded in market governance and practice. However, the manifold criteria of local also provided the committee with the flexibility to meet competing needs of all three guiding ‘pillars’ of the CRFM: farmers, consumers and community.

   Keywords
   Farmers’ market, local, Rotary International, non-profit.
9. Food Waste in Australian Households: Why does it occur? David Pearson, Michelle Minehan, and Rachael Wakefield-Rann Abstract

   Food waste has become a major issue, adding to environmental degradation, economic impoverishment and social tensions around the world. This article examines what is currently known in the literature about why food waste occurs at the household level. After reviewing what is known about the relevant demographic characteristics and broad behavioural drivers, these findings are applied to examine the potential causes of, and solutions to, household food waste in Australia. This research suggests that high levels of food waste may emerge from the interaction of activities associated with planning, shopping, storage, preparation and consumption of food. The literature also indicates the significance of behavioural drivers such as: lack of awareness; lack of negative economic impact; high quality standards; insufficient purchase planning; over-purchasing and cooking; lack of kitchen skills; high sensitivity to food safety; and changing meal plans. Although many of the findings presented have emerged from studies across numerous cultural and economic contexts, and are therefore necessarily general, they provide a valuable indication of some common drivers of household food waste. As such, this article provides a basis for the development of other more context specific investigations and interventions into the prevention of household food waste.

   Keywords
   household food waste, behavioural drivers, consumers, Australia
10. Bibere Vinum Suae Regionis: Why Whian Whian wine Moya Costello and Steve Evans Abstract

    Bibere vinum suae regionis, to drink wine from one’s own region, attempts to match the neologism ‘locavore’, local eater, with one for wine. We compare drinking in two regions: the surrounds of Adelaide, South Australia, an area of international repute for wine-making, and the subtropical Northern Rivers, on the far north coast of New South Wales—not a diverse wine-growing area because of high rainfall and humidity that produce grape-destroying mildew/fungus, but bordering a number of ‘new’ wine areas. Issues under consideration include distribution and access, choice and cost. We also survey the reasons for consuming wine in particular, and consuming it locally, including sustaining economies, environments, societies, cultures and identities, and investigate the idea of the local per se.

    Keywords
    wine, local, terroir, Adelaide, Northern Rivers
11. About the Authors

Locale n2, 2018

1. Cover
2. Copyright Information
3. Contents
4. Introduction Susie Khamis
5. Tasting Territory: Imagining place in Australian native food packaging Charlotte Craw Abstract

   One aspect of the contemporary interest in ‘local’ foods has been the appearance of products based on Australian native plants. In this article, I explore the place identities presented in the packaging of these products. How are the intimate connections between land and ingredients implicit in the idea of native foods represented in contemporary commodity culture? And how are these relationships between food and place situated within larger discourses of national identity and territory? While native foods present a unique and potent way of engaging with local foods, I argue that the consumer culture of native foods reinforces a naturalised conception of place that un-reflexively conflates the local with the national. Place is conceived of in largely natural terms, ignoring historical and social factors, including, crucially, the Indigenous Australian traditional knowledge on which native food production rests.

   Keywords
   Food, place, local, nationalism, native Australian, terroir
6. Sotetsu Heritage: Cycads, sustenance and cultural landscapes in the Amami islands Philip Hayward and Sueo Kuwahara Abstract

   This article addresses the cultural heritage and, thereby, socio-historical perception of the sotetsu plant (cycas revoluta) in Tokunoshima, the Amami islands and the broader Ryukyu archipelago of southern Japan. The article addresses the plant’s function as an emergency/resilience food resource, a field windbreak, a defining feature of a particular ‘cultural landscape’ and a potent symbol within Ryukyu history. While the Amami islands are (now) part of Japan, the article views them from a Pacific history viewpoint, as an underdeveloped archipelagic annex to a major, densely-populated regional power and whose use of botanical and other primary resources has much in common with the islands of Oceania, not the least in terms of the “derivative vulnerabilities” (Lewis, 2009) arising from Amami’s history of colonial disruption and economic exploitation. The discussions advanced in the article engage with the sotetsu’s nature as a food source, a progenitor of related ‘foodways’ and its complex role in the cultural landscape and heritage of the Amami islands and, in particular, southern Tokunoshima. The concluding section considers the heritage value and context of the plant and of the distinctive hedged ‘fieldscapes’ within the context of contemporary economic development.

   Keywords
   Cycad, cycas revoluta, sotetsu, Kanamizaki, Tokunoshima, Amami, emergency foods, resilience, foodways
7. Coles, Woolworths, and the Local Sarah Keith Abstract

   Australia is home to one of the most concentrated supermarket sectors in the world, and the practices of the ‘big two’ supermarkets have far-reaching consequences on food production and retail at the local level. This article surveys key issues in Coles and Woolworths’ effect on the food retail and production sectors, and looks at how these supermarkets have adapted in recent years to concerns and criticisms, as well as recent moves towards addressing these criticisms. Over the past decade, several important shifts have occurred which suggest an evolving consumer consciousness and increasing discontent with the corporatised supermarket sector. A primary concern is lack of competition, which reduces incentives to keep prices low for consumers; furthermore, these supermarkets have also been charged with wielding substantial buyer power, resulting in lower prices paid to suppliers. Quality of produce is a further issue, while the rise of private label goods such as milk is concerning for both suppliers and retail competitors. This discontent has led to an ideological opposition to these supermarkets, resulting in public campaigns to prevent their entry into towns and suburbs. Finally, new developments by Coles and Woolworths to improve their reputations, although still at an early stage, are examined.

   Keywords
   Retail, supermarket, local, Coles, Woolworths
8. Exploring the Market Potential of ‘Local’ in Food Systems David Pearson and Alison Bailey Abstract

   Local food initiatives create a niche market in many developed countries where consumer choice is being met with an expanding offering in both conventional as well as complementary retail outlets. Supermarkets in conjunction with the food service sector currently dominate food sales and consumption, and are likely to do so for the foreseeable future. However, the local food sector offers an opportunity for implementing niche marketing strategies for many businesses. Local food activities tend to be relatively independent activities and a clearer definition for “local” food would assist in consolidating this important component of the food system. Related to this, consumers would benefit from the establishment of some form of assurance system for the ‘localness’ of food. In the UK, with its well established local food market, farmers’ markets, farm shops and box schemes are currently having the largest impact in terms of total sales. Hence further research is required to confirm that support for similar business ventures in Australia would be a viable strategy for strengthening its local food systems.

   Keywords
   Local food, food production, food consumption
9. A Pie Cart Story: The longevity of a vernacular fast food eatery Lindsay Neill, Claudia Bell, and Nigel Hemmington Abstract

   Roadside caravans selling hot meals—’pie carts’—originated in New Zealand during the Depression era of the early 1930s. They were popular providers of fast food in small towns between the 1950s and 1970s. Auckland pie cart the White Lady still operates, and has been continuously in business since 1948. It may now be regarded as a culinary institution. This ethnographic study examines the endurance of the White Lady pie cart against intermittent opposition by city authorities, and vigorous competition by American-style fast-food chains. It survives as a successful business, as well a focal point for citizens’ affectionate nostalgia. In a city where the average timeframe of a hospitality operation is just 18 months, to many residents the White Lady has achieved the status of city icon. Its longevity is attributed to its location, convenience, reliability, authenticity, quirky charm, and its operation as a family business. The proprietors take pride in their long-standing and dogged tenacity against the dynamics of a changing city.

   Keywords
   Fast food, longevity, hospitality, pie cart, streetscape
10. From Bananas To Biryani: The creation of Woolgoolga Curryfest as an expression of community Lisa Milner and Mandy Hughes Abstract

    Since the 1940s, a Punjabi Sikh subculture has been a part of the community of Woolgoolga, just north of Coffs Harbour in northern coastal New South Wales (NSW). This began with their relocation to Woolgoolga to farm bananas. Today the area boasts the largest regional Sikh settlement in Australia, and although banana farming continues to be an important aspect of Sikh life, these original families and other newcomers have diversified and branched out into other aspects of community existence. In an area with a growing regional population and an economy largely centred on food production, services and tourism, the ‘regional festival culture’ has been embraced as a way to reflect and create notions of community, as well as attract interest from visitors drawn to the multicultural township. This article considers the festival as not only a case study in the expansion of regional food cultures, but also identifies Curryfest as a conduit for the promotion of Woolgoolga as a unique and diverse community. It is important to note that definitions of ‘community’ will always be contested, as will issues over who has the right to represent a particular community. Understandings of multiculturalism can also be visited here but we suggest that it is important not to dismiss the official project of multiculturalism in Australia as being superficial and of limited value. The social significance of food demands that any exchange of culinary practices should in fact be given recognition as an important and potentially powerful social force.

    Keywords
    Woolgoolga, Community, Sikh, festival, food
11. Make Or Break: Building chefs in Sydney food media Nancy Lee Abstract

    The Sydney dining community is joined in a number of ways—through food, through the online information-sharing portal Twitter and through the food media. This article discusses these connections within the dining community and the ways in which they contribute to the industry’s perception of dining and of Sydney chefs. In particular, The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide and weekly pullout magazine Good Living are significant indicators of the direction of Sydney dining and Sydney chefs. I assess the methods through which these titles contribute to the evolution of Sydney dining. Food critics also act as ‘gatekeepers’ to this scene. While they do not direct what goes on in Sydney kitchens, the influence of Sydney food critics affects how diners perceive Sydney chefs. Certain chefs are seen in contemporary culture as celebrity figures built by the media. As a result, the ways in which we understand food and chefs are changing. In one-on-one interviews with notable chefs in Sydney and through considering the effects of cultural capital amongst the dining community, I present a discussion on the impacts of Sydney food media and how they build the profiles of Sydney chefs in order to fuel what I call the ‘chef economy’.

    Keywords
    Sydney chefs, identity, food, media
12. About the Authors

Locale n1, 2018

1. Cover
2. Copyright Information
3. Contents
4. Introduction Susie Khamis
5. When do Regional Dishes Give Rise to a Regional Cuisine?: Some thoughts from Southern New Zealand Helen Leach Abstract

   Confirming the status of certain dishes popularly accepted as ‘regional’ proves particularly difficult when hard evidence is sought from localised cookbooks. Attempts to track the recipes for such dishes back in time add a further dimension to the problem. Because regional cuisines are necessarily founded on regional dishes, their status becomes problematic in turn. This article considers the criteria by which certain dishes are deemed ‘regional’ (by regulation, professional judgment or popular association); and, by examining several dishes widely associated with New Zealand cuisine, shows how such labeling can conceal (or at least obscure) more culturally nuanced and complex histories. The examination of dishes through their proxies, recipes, shows that an evolutionary approach, combined with the concept of the culinary tradition, offers a clearer perspective on the phenomenon of localisation than the ahistorical concept of a regional cuisine.

   Keywords
   Regional dishes, regional cuisine, cultural evolution, culinary tradition, Southland, New Zealand, Euroterroirs
6. A Universal Comfort: Tea in the Sydney penal settlement Jacqueline Newling Abstract

   John E. Crowley opens his paper ‘The Sensibility of Comfort’ with an observation of the English from Spaniard, Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella. Writing in 1808, Espriella notes:

   There are two words in their language on which these people pride themselves, and which they say cannot be translated. Home is the one, by which an Englishman means his house… The other word is comfort; it means all the enjoyments and privileges of home; they have enjoyments which we never dream of (1999: 1).

   As far removed from ‘home’ as an English person could ever imagine, one form of ‘comfort’ for the first settlers of New South Wales could be found in something as simple as a cup of tea. The First Fleet arrived from England in 1788 with a two years’ supply of salt provisions but tea and sugar were not included in the government rations. Among the native vegetation around Port Jackson (now Sydney) that was deemed edible by the European settlers, one species in particular stood out from the others, according to extant records from the time: smilax glyciphylla, a native sarsparilla, which the colonists named ‘sweet tea’. By 1788 tea was entrenched in British culture and rather than being the luxury item it had previously been, was regarded by many as a necessity. More importantly, for the early colonists, in an unknown place in uncertain times, sweet tea provided a necessary ‘comfort’ and was regarded as a health-giving restorative. According to First Fleeter, Captain Watkin Tench, this indigenous tea alternative “was drank universally” (1793/1998: 18).

   This article began as a gastronomic investigation into ‘sweet tea’ from the colonists’ perspective. That is, with an interest in why we eat what we eat, or in this case, drink. It documents the Europeans’ attitudes towards this native resource as a tea. By examining contemporary letters, diaries and journals that refer to sweet tea, several key points in the broader gastronomic context emerge. First, the investigation provides fresh insight into the colonists’ engagement with their new environment, exposing differences across the social tiers. Second, the importance of tea as a cultural entity is evident, as a marker of civility among the higher social orders and a necessary comfort in the lower social stratum. In this context tea is indicative of the extent that colonists, including convicts, maintained a right to ‘comfort’, despite Port Jackson being a penal settlement, in providing themselves with at least one enjoyment and privilege from home: drinking tea.

   Keywords
   Convicts, First Fleet, comfort, native food, tea
7. Resisting Ages-Old Fixity as a Factor in Wine Quality: Colonial wine tours and Australia’s early wine industry Julie McIntyre Abstract

   A leading Australian wine writer agrees with wine scientists that it is possible to make wines “that taste of where they’re from” but argues that Australian growers focus more on regionality than the micro-sites of terroir (Allen, 2010: 19–20). It is ironic, then, that the most successful Australian export wines are cross-regional blends with consistent taste rather than aroma, bouquet or flavour discernable from discrete places (Banks et al., 2007: 33). Some Australian fine wine producers see this subversion of the perceived value of regionality as a barrier to greater industry success and are focusing on connection to soil as an indicator of wine quality; identifying family links with “patches of dirt” to emphasis the heritage of their wines (Lofts, 2010: vx). But my argument here is that the Australian industry is still so young compared with Old World wine regions that a seemingly natural balance of wine and place—exemplified in the notion of terroir—is still taking shape. The genesis of the Australian wine industry lay in movement rather than fixity as colonists brought plant stock, and vine growing and wine making knowledge, from the Old World to the New.

   Keywords
   Wine history, Australian colonial history, Australian agricultural history, environmental history
8. Unearthing Paradox: Organic food and its tensions Joanna Henryks and Bethaney Turner Abstract

   Consumer behaviour in the organic market has been the focus of numerous studies. However the research does not produce consistent results and fails to explain why around 60% of consumers switch between organic and conventional food on a regular basis. This article explores this ‘switching’ behaviour and identifies the need to look beyond reasons such as cost and availability. It then highlights inconsistencies that exist in this market and explores these using the concept of paradox. The aim is to provide insight into the complexity and ambiguity of consumers’ experiences in the arena of organic food. This is done through three studies exploring different perspectives on consumers and organic food in Canberra.

   Keywords
   Organics, Canberra, consumer behaviour, ethical consumption
9. Salmon Aquaculture, Cuisine and Cultural Disruption in Chiloé Philip Hayward Abstract

   La Isla Grande de Chiloé, located off the southern coast of Chile, is the second largest island on the Pacific coast of South America. 2002 census figures identified the population of the island and its smaller outliers (henceforth referred to collectively as Chiloé) as close to 155,000, representing approximately 1% of Chile’s overall population. An undeveloped regional ‘backwater’ for most of the 19th and 20th centuries, Chiloé has risen to play an increasingly prominent role in the national economy since the establishment of commercial salmon aquaculture in the region in the early 1980s. This article examines the environmental, social and cultural impacts of the salmon industry in Chiloé with particular regard to regional food culture. Assessing these impacts, the article also analyses the manner in which local artists and writers have deployed traditional folkloric figures and motifs to critique the industry. In these regards, the article addresses the tensions and intersections between two contrasting impulses: the modernisation/industrialisation that has resulted from the region’s incorporation within a global salmon aquaculture enterprise; and a more cautious local engagement with modernity that attempts to value and sustain aspects of pre-modern Chilote culture in contemporary contexts.

   Keywords
   Chiloé, salmon, aquaculture/mariculture, cuisine, tourism, folklore, visual arts
10. Putting Down the Hangi: Upholding the mana of the marae Tony Whincup and Ross Hemera Abstract

    A hangi, or traditional method of underground cooking using steam from heated stones, is historical and contemporary, symbolic and utilitarian, communal and individual; and reaffirms cultural values and beliefs. It is a central and vital component in the maintenance of tikanga (Maori cultural customs and practices). Within the ever-changing technologies of contemporary life the hangi adapts and survives while maintaining its core cultural meaning. This photo essay records the established practice on an urban marae. Although traditionally procured materials of wood and stone were not available the ‘waste’ from contemporary life—old sheets of corrugated iron, wooden produce palettes, the couplings of discarded railway lines and yesterday’s newspapers—were brought in as alternatives in order to carry on the practice of ‘putting down the hangi’. This adaptation speaks much for the cultural significance of the hangi and its dialectical relationship in establishing and maintaining a sense of identity for both the individual and the community.

    The pleasure and pride experienced in producing a hangi is not so much about individual involvement but rather in contributing to the community. The hangi is a part of an encompassing practice of upholding mana (the supernatural force in a person, group of people, place or object) and manaakitanga (prestige through hosting and hospitality) that is inextricably a part of an underpinning Maori worldview. This article focuses upon the hangi as a part of the powhiri process in which manuhiri, or visitors, become one with the tangata whenua, ‘the people of the land’, with reference to a particular hangi that took place in Maraeroa Marae, Porirua in December 2009.

    Keywords
    hangi, tikanga, marae, marae atea, tikanga, mana
11. ‘Paradise’, Euroa: Australia’s first frog farm Bernadette Hince Abstract

    In the 1930s Henry Willson and Sydney Jacka, two young men from Euroa in central Victoria, imported some live specimens of Rana catesbeiana (the American bullfrog) to farm for edible frog legs. Despite the arrival of two separate batches of frogs from the United States, efforts to establish a farm were unsuccessful. Only the year before, another anuran—the cane toad (Rhinella marina)—was imported into Queensland as a biological control for native beetle pests on sugar cane. The cane toad was overly successful in adapting to new surroundings. This article gives a brief history of the biology and use of frogs, especially when used as food, before exploring the impetus for Australia’s first frog farm at Euroa. Today, wild or farmed frog legs are an important diet item in many countries, but not in Australia. Extinctions and diseases of frogs and toads in some parts of the world—including Australia’s rainforests—are of great concern to biologists and ecologists. Introductions of the American bullfrog and cane toad have been linked here and elsewhere with the spread of disease and with frog population declines. The article concludes with some historically informative recipes for frog legs and related dishes.

    Keywords
    Euroa, food history, frog legs, frog farm, Rana catesbeiana
12. About the Authors